In various online social networking systems, such as Facebook, there are a variety of situations in which users may be asked to vote. For example, quizzes, polls, contests, promotions, and games may be provided on Facebook in which users may place votes. For example, in an online quiz, a user may be asked to vote for an answer that the user believes to be correct in response to a particular question. Certain online activities involving voting, such as online contests, may provide prizes, such as monetary prizes or online coupons, to users who participate in the activity and who satisfy certain criteria. For example, if a user's entry in a photo contest gets the most votes, the user may be given a prize.
Fraud is very widespread in such online activities on online social networking sites, in part because of the availability and value of the prizes that can be obtained in exchange for participating in such activities. This is particularly true when the monetary value of the prizes is very high. As a result, companies that run polls, contests, and other voting-related activities online have a strong interest in ensuring that such activities are fair and protected against fraud.
Various kinds of fraud can occur in connection with online voting. For example, one kind of fraud is identity-related fraud, in which the user who participates in the activity is not who the user purports to be. When a user takes part in an online activity through a social networking system, such as Facebook, the user performs actions via the user's profile (account) in that social networking system. Such profiles contain a variety of information about the user who is associated with the profile, such as the user's name, email address, and mailing address. It can be difficult to determine, however, whether a user who performs actions on the social networking system through a particular profile actually is the person who is represented by the profile. For example, if Person A creates a profile that contains accurate information about Person A, but Person B steals Person A's login credentials (e.g., username and password), then Person B may log in to Person A's profile on the social networking system and then perform actions on the social networking system. Although such actions may appear, within the social networking system, to be performed by Person A, they are in fact performed by Person B. If such actions include voting in an online contest, then such votes are fraudulent because they were not cast by the true Person A.
As another example, in some cases it may be possible for a piece of software to log in to a person's social networking profile and to perform actions through said profile, such as by voting through said profile. This is another example of fraudulent voting.
Yet another example of fraudulent voting performed through an online social networking profile is the case in which a user creates a profile that does not represent any real person. Such a profile may, for example, include a fictitious name, a fictitious email address, and a fictitious mailing address. In some cases it may be necessary to provide a real email address, but still be possible to provide other information that is fictitious. When the user creates such a profile and then performs actions on the social networking system, such as voting, such actions are yet another example of fraudulent voting.
What is needed, therefore, are techniques for protecting against fraudulent voting in online systems.